Never Retire: 30 Days Of Grocery Shopping In Los Angeles Vs. 30 Days In Valencia, Spain

It’s time to make what—at this point in the move to Spain—isn’t quite an even comparison, but it’s close enough. And I will update it when it’s closer to even.

The cost difference between a month of grocery shopping (farmer’s markets and supermarket trips, including, at least in Spain, toothpaste and stuff) in Los Angeles and a month in Valencia, Spain.

For Valencia, I am using January 20 through February 18. For LA, I am using the month of September. September because it was ahead of having visitors in October and the costlier holiday eating season.

This isn’t a perfectly even comparison because we haven’t quite settled into an eating at home vs. eating out flow in Spain.

Then there’s the fact that we’re also buying some items here for the first time that we likely won’t buy for a while.

Another key point: Things like “toothpaste and stuff” are super expensive now in American supermarkets so we used to buy most of that stuff on Amazon in the United States. In Spain, you don’t have to do that. You can get personal hygiene items at the grocery store without visiting a loan officer. In all seriousness, it’s criminal that stores in the US are allowed to charge what they charge for tampons and pads for women.

More on that, along with some data and an accompanying hot take, in a minute—

But, across the board, the US totals are lower because they don’t account for this non-food portion of our regular grocery store shopping.

That said—taken together, it comes close to being even enough. And there’s some interesting highlights we will consider on specific cost comparisons between the US and Spain.